Hanging By A Thread
by MyHeroRaven
Summary: People are monsters. & sometimes you can't even see it until you're barely holding on and hanging by a thread. Rated for attempted murder.


**Title: Hanging By A Thread**

**Rating: M don't take this lightly. **

**Summary: People are monsters. & sometimes you can't even see it until you're barely holding on and hanging by a thread. Rated for attempted murder. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Glee!**

**A/N: Ok so this is my first Glee fic, and I love Kurt so much he is so adorable and he goes through so much. This story is pretty cruel. Just thought you should know. Harassment and homophobia is not cool. Period.**

**Hanging By A Thread**

It was just another ordinary day for Kurt Hummel, seriously it was. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was just another Thursday morning. He was tired from last night. He had stayed up all night working on a new song for Glee. He really wanted to make sure the competition went well. He already knew that they had the talent but he wanted to take it to a new level so for the last few weeks his nights were mostly sleepless.

As he headed into school he remembered that after school he was supposed to meet the other Glee members on stage to help set up back drops and work on the curtain. Somehow some of the chords had come lose and someone had to climb the scaffolding to re-secure them. Funnily enough he was the only one that would do it.

As the day progressed the abuse that he received somehow got worse, but for Kurt this _was_ a normal day. Karofsky slammed him into the lockers multiple times, he was sure to have brilliant bruises by that night. Kurt had already had to change clothes twice, stupid slushie machine. Really whose bright idea was that? But somehow the abuse turned frightening when he opened his locker for the last time that day.

Inside hanging from one of the hooks was a noose with a note attached. With shaky hands Kurt pulled the noose down and started to unfold the note. What he read made his heart stop dead.

_There's only one way to deal with a fag. It's almost time. _

Almost time? Almost time for what? This couldn't be happening he thought. Sure he got thrown in the dumpster and slammed into lockers but nothing life-threatening could happen. It wasn't likely right? Was someone going to really try and hurt him? It would be okay it was already the end of the day. He had to help Glee out on the stage and then he could go home and work on this tonight. He would come up with something. No one really wanted to kill him… right?

As Kurt shut his locker and approached the auditorium he had a bad feeling and it wasn't the kind where you're like: _this doesn't feel right._ It was the kind of feeling that told him that he shouldn't have gotten out of bed today. Shaking off the feeling he entered the stage area to see that all of the Glee members were already there waiting for him.

"Jeeze Kurt took you long enough," Rachel said. Kurt ignored the drama queen, she really wasn't worth his time and he was still nervous about the locker incident.

Something snapped inside of Kurt and he threw his leather bag to the floor and dropped into one of the front seats. He could hear people talking to him. Asking him things, yelling. But he didn't care he was just so confused. Why would someone put that in his locker? It just has to be a scare tactic. It can't be _real_. This is _high school_ after all. He wasn't going to get attacked. Even if he was gay, this was the 21st century and people were past this Neanderthal behavior.

At least he hoped they were.

"Sorry what?" Kurt asked the group.

Finn and Puck gave him this funny look as Rachel rolled her eyes and scoffed. Mercedes looked like she wanted to say something but she stopped herself. The others looked concerned and confused. Kurt was never this spaced out.

"Are you ok dude?" Puck asked. He had this sad look on his face; it was like he saw more of Kurt than anyone else did. Yeah because that doesn't sound gay.

"I'm fine, so did you guys get the ladder so I can re-hang the chords?" Kurt asked as he stood up and made his way onto the stage. He couldn't take their looks; it was like they thought his head was going to explode. Not likely.

"Kurt you don't need a ladder you can just climb the scaffolding; that's what it's there for," Rachel said. It was very condescending. How was Kurt supposed to have known that? Jeeze…

"Ok yeah I'll get right on that and in the mean time you can learn how to not be such a stuck up bitch."

The entire club got quiet. It was so out of character to hear Kurt talk that way, especially since he and Rachel had been getting along lately. Kurt looked at Rachel in regret, instantly sorry for what he had said.

"I'm sorry Rachel I didn't mean to be so mean. I just have a lot on my mind. In fact I need to tell you all something," Kurt began. He looked around the room waiting to be sure he had their full attention. Taking a deep breath he continued.

"I've been lying to you all. When I say I'm OK I'm really not. The harassment and abuse has been getting worse and today when I opened my locked I found a noose hanging on one of the hooks with a note attached. It said: There's only one way to deal with a fag. It's almost time. I've been freaking out ever since. I'm so afraid that Karofsky or one of his goons are going to take it to the next level and seriously hurt me, and there won't be anything you can do to help me, and I am afraid that some of you won't even care if the school loses their token fag. It's going to be like Matthew Shepard all over again only this time, it's going to be me," Kurt finished looking around the room. He had the sudden urge to cry but held it back. He wasn't weak he was just scared. He didn't know how to deal with this.

"Kurt, you know we would care. You know that right? You know that we would never _ever_ let their bullying get that far, in fact we should go tell someone right now. Let's go," as much as Kurt loved Mercedes he just couldn't bring himself to grab her outstretched hand.

_He just couldn't._

"I'm sorry but I can't. I shouldn't have even said anything. It was wrong of me to burden you all with _my_ problems," Kurt said and the whole room went nuts. People saying how he wasn't a burden and how he needed to tell someone, some of the girls tried to reach out and embrace him but Kurt pulled away.

"Kurt you should at least tell your dad," Finn tried to reason.

"No, he's sick Finn. I don't want to stress him out; it could kill him. No he doesn't need to be worrying about any of this. I can deal, I just need time," Kurt said.

"Dude we all care about you and I know I used to be just like Karofsky but I would never let anyone hurt you. None of us would, you gotta trust us man. We really care about you Kurt," Puck said holding out his hands and gesturing to the rest of Glee. They all made sounds of agreement.

"Well thanks. Anyways we should get to work, this stage isn't going to repair itself," Kurt said moving towards the scaffolding wiping away a few invisible tears. It felt good to know that people cared. Maybe they had always cared he just hadn't seen it. Kurt moved with grace climbing the scaffolding until he was a good 15 feet in the air and started to grab hold of the chords attached to the curtain. The room got noisy again as the other members of Glee worked on different parts of the stage, people were moving with purpose and for once in a long time Kurt finally felt like he belonged.

**BANG!**

The doors to the auditorium flung open so hard they banged into the wall. 9 people filed into the room. In the lead was Karofsky. He didn't say anything as he climbed onto the stage and made his way over to the scaffolding that Kurt was standing on. The other eight people took different positions on the stage. They were easily recognizable as members of the hockey team. People that the others had seen pick on Kurt in the past. Out and about homophobes. David Karofsky looked up at Kurt smirking maliciously. He looked like the cat that just caught the canary. Kurt didn't like that look.

"Did you get my little message fag?" Karofsky sneered up at Kurt. Kurt was frozen it looked as if he was trapped. The members of Glee stood around in shock not knowing what was going to happen next.

"Hey leave him alone!" Puck growled starting to move forwards. A fist made its home in his gut and he doubled over. The guy that had punched him knocked him on his back making puck fall flat on the ground spread eagle groaning in pain. A foot was placed painfully between his shoulders pressing hard. Puck hissed in pain.

"Don't move, we're not here to hurt you guys, we just need to take care of the queer and then we'll be going," Karofsky cooed.

"The hell you are, you're not going to touch my brother," Finn said as chaos broke lose. Members of Glee were tearing at members of the hockey team. It wasn't pretty. But as the fight started to gain momentum no one seemed to notice that Karofsky had scaled the scaffolding and was now a few feet away from a terrified Kurt.

"This isn't funny David, just go away and leave me alone. I haven't done anything to you!" Kurt said, his voice rising in pitch and fear.

Karofsky moved forward and reached out and grabbed Kurt by his upper arms and dragged him into Karofsky's body.

"Yeah you have, you're queer. You probably look at me when I change all the time. You probably fantasize about me! And I don't like it." He whispered into Kurt's ear. He was horrified now. Karofsky seemed out of his mind, out of his head. There was no telling what he was going to do to him. The thought made Kurt shiver.

"Stop wriggling. You know lady I don't like the idea of killing a girl, but in your case I'll make an exception," Karofsky said before flipping Kurt around. For a moment of sheer terror Kurt thought that he was going to throw him from the scaffolding. But he didn't he pushed Kurt so that he was laying face down onto the wood of the platform. _What was he doing?_ Suddenly Kurt felt a thick piece of rope wrap around his neck as Karofsky straddled his backside. As he started to tighten the rope Kurt started to struggle and scream in hysteria. _Oh god; oh god he's going to kill me_ Kurt thought.

His screams alerted the fighting people on the ground and they all looked up. Hockey players and Glee members alike. They all wore looks of shock on their faces as the stared at Karofsky and Kurt. They watched in fright and panic as Karofsky pulled Kurt up so his toes just barely touched the wood of the scaffolding. Kurt's back to Karofsky's front. Then Karofsky started to tie the other end of the rope to the platform. He smiled madly, an insane glint in his eyes. His left arm wrapped around Kurt's arms and across his chest. Karofsky's right hand gently pushed his hair back from his forehead as if you would an infant or a crying loved one. Tears cascaded down Kurt's face and he started to sob.

"Please-" Kurt started.

"Shhhh, it'll be okay baby. I promise it'll only hurt for a second I promise. Shhhh," Karofsky whispered in his ear, and in a moment of sickening tenderness he pressed a soft kiss to Kurt's head. He smiled gently at the crying boy as he pushed Kurt forward and let go. As Kurt fell he didn't see his life flash before his eyes, he never believed in that. He saw his friends looking up at him until a sick pain flashed in his neck and his vision went white.

Bloodcurdling screams echoed around the room, though the sound was dead to Kurt. Finn and Puck flew into action first as they all started to climb up the scaffolding. The Hockey players took off in fear. They didn't want to be wrapped up in something like murder. The girls on Glee started to cry Mercedes was sobbing and she and Sam were hovering beneath Kurt's limp body ready to catch him if he were to fall. As Puck and Finn reached the top they shoved a psychotic Karofsky out of their way. Finn pulled on the make-shift noose and held tight watching in nauseating sickness as Kurt's body swayed and jerked while Puck pulled out his pocket knife and started to saw away at the fibers. Finn was crying hard using all his strength to make sure Kurt wouldn't fall. Once the rope was cut Puck and Finn gently lowered Kurt into the arms on Sam and Mercedes. They gently lowered Kurt's unconscious body to the stage floor. No body seemed to move. Finn and Puck climbed back to the ground and Finn took Kurt into his arms he gently loosened the rope and pulled it over Kurt's head. Laying him on the ground Finn began to perform CPR. Kurt wasn't responding. The girls were crying, and the boys had tears falling freely from their eyes. _Not Kurt… not their Kurt._

Another puff of air and Kurt inhaled sharply. Looks of relief spread across the room. The kids could hear sirens in the distance and knew that someone had dialed nine-one-one. Kurt was breathing he would be ok. Finn laid his brother's head in his lap and stroked his hair, sobbing. He was so relieved that he was alive. That Karofsky hadn't killed him. Speaking of Karofsky, he had slipped out the back door of the stage without being noticed. There was no way he could stick around; no way would he be caught. But he would be back. For Kurt.

Kurt's eyes opened and he looked into the eyes of his friends. They all smiled at him. He didn't return the gesture. He was so weak from the pain. He wondered briefly why his friends had stared as he was hung but he pushed that dark thought into the depths of his mind. As Kurt stared up at his friends he felt nothing but emptiness and fear. Because, although he was very much alive, he was in danger. There were monsters in the world. Monsters like Karofsky, and as long as there were Karofsky's out there Kurt would always be barely holding on and hanging by a thread.

**P.S. That's the end. Homophobia is cruel and real. It's in our everyday lives and people have to struggle so hard with it. It makes me sick. **

**I wrote this for knowledge… & well… now you know. **

**This is probably one of the hardest things I have ever had to write. **

**Let me know what you think this was my first Glee fanfic. I would love some feedback. **

**MyHeroRaven**


End file.
